This archive was recently acquired and is not yet accessible, as the material must be processed and cataloged. An update will be posted to this web page when the archive becomes available for research.

This extraordinary collection of rare books and prints on gastronomy from the 15th through the 19th century offers unique insight into the visual culture of food. The elaborate art of culinary preparation, consumption, and display reveals food's status as a symbol of political and social power. Amassed by antiquarian cookbook collectors Anne Willan and Mark Cherniavsky over a period of 40 years, the collection comprises nearly 200 books published before 1830 and hundreds from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Costume of the Cook (left) and Costume of the Boilermaker (right), Nicolas I de Larmessin, ca. 1690s. The Getty Research Institute, 2018.M.15. Gift of Anne Willan and Mark Cherniavsky

The collection's many early modern books, which illustrate elaborate feasts, celebrations, and processions, complement the Getty Research Institute's unparalleled festival collection. Also included is Willan's working library of cookbooks, her professional archives, and the archives of École de Cuisine La Varenne, which she founded in 1975.

Fireworks at Whitehall, Samuel Moore, 1687. From Gregory King, The History of the Coronation of the Most High, Most Mighty, and Most Excellent Monarch, James II (London, 1687). The Getty Research Institute, 2018.M.15. Gift of Anne Willan and Mark Cherniavsky